FBI HQ Kiddie Porn

FBI HQ Kiddie Porn

JANUARY 5--The government’s pursuit of suspects trafficking in child pornography recently led federal agents to a familiar address--the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, where a bureau official is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector general is focusing on FBI employee Joseph Bonsuk’s receipt of nearly 80 illicit images that were e-mailed to him by an Illinois sex offender whose rap sheet includes felony convictions for bank robbery and solicitation of a minor.

In a telephone interview last night, Bonsuk, 51, acknowledged that he is under investigation, but said that the matter was a “misunderstanding” and a “mix-up.” Bonsuk, who claimed he is cooperating with probers, said that FBI officials had told him yesterday not to discuss the ongoing investigation. While adding that he was “totally innocent,” Bonsuk, pictured at right, said that he has not been told that he will avoid criminal charges.

That direction was apparently triggered by TSG inquiries to the agency’s press office about Bonsuk. Kathy Wright, an FBI spokesperson, refused to disclose Bonsuk’s job title, his responsibilities, or how long he has worked for the bureau. Claiming that FBI policy barred disclosure of such details about a public employee, Wright also declined to say whether Bonsuk’s job status has changed in light of the child porn investigation.

Bonsuk told TSG that he works as an FBI management and program analyst.

Court records reveal that Bonsuk’s name surfaced in the wake of an FBI probe of Ronald Norweathers, an Illinois felon who was arrested in December 2009 for allegedly sharing hundreds of illicit images and videos via the GigaTribe peer-to-peer network. A criminal complaint notes that Norweathers, 29, unknowingly allowed access to his child porn stash to three different undercover operatives.

Following his arrest, Norweathers, pictured at left, “voluntarily authorized the FBI to take over control of and use his ‘online presence.’” This tactic allows agents to secretly assume control of a suspect’s screen names, nicknames, and e-mail addresses, which can provide immediate access to networks of child porn traders.

While reviewing a Yahoo account used by Norweathers, FBI agents discovered “several exchanges” with an AOL e-mail account. One March 2009 correspondence from Norweathers to the AOL account included a file with 78 child porn images. After the file was sent, Norweathers received an e-mail from the AOL account saying, “I don’t want kiddie porn scary.” Norweathers responded, “well duh pick through for the teen stuff I sent how it came to me.”

After realizing that Bonsuk worked for the FBI, investigators secretly copied the hard drive of Bonsuk’s office computer. While a forensic examination did not turn up any illicit images, a variety of evidence retrieved from the machine linked him to the AOL address “utilized by Bonsuk on March 13, 2009 to receive child pornography.”

At Bonsuk’s request, a TSG reporter forwarded him a search warrant that recently allowed agents to seize a “CD containing e-mail content” from his AOL account. He did not reply to messages left for him this morning seeking comment on the warrant’s contents.

Norweathers, who spent about four years in federal prison for his bank robbery and solicitation convictions, is currently being held without bail at the federal lockup in Chicago. He was named in a four-count July 2010 indictment charging him with possession and distribution of child pornography. (6 pages)

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Comments (9)

funny when the people in the government could even have kiddie pics and we dont hear about them getting like some of these guys we elect and dont know about their past cuz they say we dont support when at night if their alone just open the net and they got all the shiat they need

It was one attachment with 80 pictures in it. He replied that he didnt want it.
I read the entire subpoena, Im not seeing any evidence of this Bonsuk guy committing any wrongdoing, just by reading through it. He even openly spoke with TSG about the issue, told them what he does for work.
Have to give him the benefit of the doubt here, it sounds like it was a misunderstanding to me. Most likely he was involved with snatching up this Norweather guy, but lets wait and see what else develops, if anything. In any case, evidence is what they have to rely on, he's still innocent in my book.

@pesadilla143 From what i have read, he received one single email with 78 images probably in a zip file. The sender should be locked up, not the unsuspecting user on the other end unless a pattern is established. ....

No doubt? The FBI guy even replied back, complaining about the "scary" child porn. I have found images on the net and Usenet that were labeled "car.jpg" or some other innocuous file-name, only to find they were actually low quality images of naked children. It's certainly VERY rare, but it happens. I found one such email on my MOTHER'S computer! It hadn't been opened and was very old, meaning it had resided on her computer for months. If that's a felony and gets you investigated... God help us... Can you imagine! That's scary.
Login to a 'nym server, send kiddie porn images to someone's email address, call the FBI and inform on them anonymously. They're screwed. It's the same argument I have with the "war on drugs." You merely go to the south side of town, buy a half dozen small packages of crack, toss them in someone's car, then just make an anonymous tip to the local police. They're busted. They're going to jail. They're paying fines. They're getting a permanent felony record. This is the problem with legislating "victimless crimes" into existence. You can make a criminal out of an innocent person.

@Bobby Dobbs: You said "So if someone sends you unsolicited kiddie porn and you tell them you dont want it, you have someone how done something wrong?" - One time, it can be a misunderstanding, but 80 times... come one... this man intentionally recieved that crap.
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Gee, that's like back in the 50s-70s when the Post Office used to be the largest distributor of child pornography used to entrap potential recipients. Kind of like when old J. Edgar used to have his people create "evidence" that may not have held up in court, but could force someone to turn informer for him.

Maybe reporting the guy would've been a good idea -- especially since he worked in law enforcement and all. Ignoring criminal activity isn't as bad as committing it, but it's still a scummy thing to do.